Fresh Kid
by ClintonBush43Obama
Summary: Wow! It has been so long since I updated on this channel! This is a brief tale that attempts to answer the question: what would happen if both Lorelai and Rory were pregnant at the same time during A Year in the Life? I've been on a bit of a binge with this fandom, so bear with me. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1: A Kid With Me

**Chapter 1: A Kid With Me**

It was a quiet winter's night in Stars Hollow. Luke Danes was busy closing up his diner, flipping the chairs upside down. Meanwhile, his girlfriend of many years, Lorelai Gilmore, entered the eatery; Luke had given her a spare key long ago. She made a beeline for behind the counter, noticing the stacks of papers and books.

"Wow, what's all this?" she marveled.

"What?"

"Dictionary, thesaurus, Mathematical Principles of... Natural Philosophy... Awww, you got a letter from April!" There, that explained it!

"I was two hours into deciphering it, and then I got your call," Luke chuckled.

"Hello, Peter!" Lorelai chirped.

"Father: British or Latin. She used the word 'ontological' three times; she used it the last time too, and I looked it up and then I forgot it again and then you called."

"Well, that's what you get for spawning an MIT-going genius!"

"Yeah, well, Rory's smart - she speaks like she _doesn't_ need subtitles!" Luke huffed.

"She grew up with me. She learned all her language skills via The Breakfast Club," Lorelai grabbed herself a mug. "Hey, how old is this coffee?"

"Ollllllddddd," Luke drew out, hoping she'd put it down. He should have known better. Lorelai could drink any coffee, old or right out of the Keurig.

"LOL," she took a sip anyway. "Hey, Luke?" she prodded even as she reached under a glass stand for a doughnut.

"What are you doing?"

"Eating sprinkles."

"Wait... uh, never mind," Luke waved her away. Lorelai had eaten unhealthy foods and survived this long; he figured she had nothing to worry about.

"Uh, did I tell you? Michelle's husband, Frederick, wants a baby."

"Frederick? The guy who came in and ordered three pancakes on three separate plates? I'd tell him to pitch in and buy another pig. I can't watch this anymore..." Luke threw the doughnut away even as his girlfriend laughed at his dry humor.

"Hey Luke... did you ever want a kid?"

Luke looked up from where he was diving into his paperwork. He shrugged, thrown by the question. "I have a kid."

"No, I mean a fresh kid."

"What the hell is a fresh kid?" Kids were humans, not pieces of fruit!

"A kid that's fresh. A kid... with me," Lorelai made explicit. "We never did have a serious conversation about it, I don't think. That one night at the Twickam house, but since then..."

"Well..." Luke picked up, trying to wade into this as delicately as he could. "I figured if you wanted another kid, you would... say something."

Lorelai gawked, putting down the sugar she had been pouring into a coffee filter. "I figured if _you_ wanted another kid, _you'd_ say something!"

"I brought it up once!"

"When?"

"Five, six years ago!"

"I don't remember!"

"We were at that Little League game! There was that kid playing right field, and he walked off in the middle of the inning to use the bathroom, and I turned to you and I said, 'That's the kid.'" Luke pointed into thin air for emphasis.

Lorelai stared at him.

"That's the kid?..."

"Yes!"

" _'That's the kid'_ is your way of saying you want to have a kid?"

"In so many words!" Luke affirmed almost proudly.

"No. _'That's the kid'_ is not you saying you want to have a kid! _'That's the kid'_ is you acknowledging that that's the kid who's standing there about whom you just said _'That's the kid'_!" She made this distinction at the speed of a tongue twister.

"I thought you knew what I was getting at!"

"Impossible, because I don't speak 'Huh?'" Lorelai mocked.

"Well... that's what I thought, and... you didn't pursue it, so..."

"It was up to me to pursue it?" Lorelai questioned.

"No... sorry..." The couple lapsed into a momentary silence.

"Well, how do you feel about it now?" Lorelai tried again.

"What?"

She sighed, amused at his lack of attentional skills. "Do you still want a kid?"

"Oh, well, I mean... isn't it... too late?"

"I don't know," Lorelai shrugged honestly.

"Look, forget it. I have kids. I have April, and... I've always considered... Rory to be a little bit mine." He said this last part almost sheepishly, as if he was embarrassed. Lorelai didn't know why. On the contrary, she found it quite adorable; Luke claiming her daughter as partially his. Luke was never a warm and fuzzy person to begin with, so his flashes of sentimentality were always an endearing thing to behold.

"Yeah, but she was so much fun to raise!" Lorelai stressed, recalling the years that Luke would feed her and Rory before they began their day; she at work, Rory at school. "Don't you want to have that kind of fun?"

"I have _plenty_ of fun! Look at all the chairs I get to put on tables!" Luke deflected dryly.

"You don't want to toss a ball around with your son?" Lorelai could imagine herself and Luke having a little boy. She'd always secretly wanted Rory to have a little brother.

"There's Jess," Luke offered up.

"I said toss a ball _with_ , not _at_ ," she volleyed back.

"I'm fine."

"You'll never get to see your own kid's graduation..."

"I went to Rory's graduation," Luke pointed out, becoming more confident in his paternal influence on Rory's life.

"It's not the same," Lorelai shook her head sadly.

"I know it's not the same," and Luke's voice was unusually tender, consoling.

"I just don't want you to miss out on anything..."

"Yeah, well, nobody gets to have everything they want in life. All in all? I think I did pretty good," Luke smiled at her genuinely. The love of his life was finally with him. He had a brilliant biological daughter, and another daughter he had adopted in all but deed. What more could he want?


	2. Chapter 2: Now THAT's The Kid!

**Chapter 2: Now THAT's the Kid!**

It was a slow Sunday morning. Thank goodness Lorelai had the day off at the Inn. She had not been feeling well lately, throwing up more and more. Luke had offered to stay behind and have his staff manage the diner for the day, but she'd insisted he go. Reluctantly, he had risen from the bed they shared (they had recently, finally, gotten married) and headed off.

As she was getting dressed, Lorelai suddenly felt something _move_. The scariest part? The motion was coming from _inside_ her. Instinctively, she placed a hand on her abdomen, something she had not done since she was pregnant with Rory, three decades earlier. No... she couldn't be... was she? She and Luke had been consistent in their need for sex, but they had not been intentionally... the topic of children had not come up again since that winter's night in the diner.

Lorelai raced to the bathroom, going through the cabinets until she found the pregnancy tests. Rory had bought a whole box to find out if she was pregnant; she had only recently told her mother that she was expecting. Nervously, Lorelai followed the instructions. After about five minutes, she checked the slip...

To find it a healthy shade of blue!

She was pregnant. Oh my God, it was nothing short of a miracle. A miracle that had practically fallen out of the sky. She was pregnant - and with a boy! Luke's son...

Lorelai barely finished her morning routine, in her haste to get to the diner. By the time, she arrived, it was the lunch rush hour. Entering, she beamed at the sight of her husband taking orders at the counter. There he was! The father of her baby...

Grinning, she marched up to the counter. "Hey. Got a horoscope?" It was an old joke between them, going back to the day they had first met.

"What? No coffee first?" Luke cracked, before dutifully presenting her with one and a pen. Biting her lip impishly, Lorelai scribbled down a note, and passed it back to him.

"Here's a bit of news today: a fresh kid is... coming your way..." Luke's voice trailed off of reading, and he raised his eyes to Lorelai, stunned. He stalked around the counter; his changed demeanor must have been noticed by the guests, for the whole diner suddenly fell silent. Luke gripped Lorelai by the shoulders.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. "You're going to be a father... again!"

Then the most amazing thing happened. Luke - grumpy, gruff, stoic Luke - burst into tears. "Congratulations! I love you!" He hugged her as the entire diner erupted in cheers.

"Yes!" Taylor Doose pumped his fist, before immediately opening it up and beckoning in Kirk's direction. "Pay up!"

Scowling, Kirk fished for his wallet.

"Nah, nah, nah - the T-shirts! Give me the T-shirts!" Taylor chortled, eyeing Kirk's latest busted enterprise.

Kirk reluctantly forked them over. "How 'bout three out of five?"

Miss Patty and Babette both burst into tears of joy.

But one person was not automatically happy. In fact, she did not know what to think. The emotions came crashing down in a frantic whirlpool: confusion, fear, concern.

No one noticed this dissenter's reaction of course, standing in the doorway of the diner, her mouth dropped open in shock. Except for Luke.

For if he hadn't chanced a glance over his shoulder at the tinkle of the bell, he would not have noticed Rory Gilmore racing down the sidewalk in tears.


	3. Chapter 3: Trade One for the Other?

**Chapter 3: Trade One for the Other?**

To keep up euphoric appearances, Luke declared every customer's order was on the house for the rest of the day. He sent Lorelai home and even ordered her straight to bed. Lorelai indulged him, only because she knew he was now concerned for her health as she was carrying his child.

As soon as he closed the diner early, however, Luke's paternal instincts kicked into gear. He scoured the whole of Stars Hollow for his surrogate daughter, checking the library, the _Gazette_ paper where she worked. Even the Independence Inn. The potting shed, where it now sat abandoned as opposed to when it once used to stand, proud and silent, as the Gilmore girls' first home. Nothing.

It was dark by the time Luke arrived back at the square. Sweeping his gaze over the gazebo, his eyes locked in on a young woman doubled over on its steps. He could hear the faint sound of sniffles.

Luke's body relaxed, his panic now devolving into tender concern. Slowly, he approached and sat down by Rory's side.

"I'm sorry," she wept. She didn't even have to raise her head to know it was him. "I know I should be happy for you and Mom - and I am! It's just..."

"What are you trying to say, princess?" Luke draped an arm over her.

"We can survive with one baby. We can't afford two!" and Rory clutched at her abdomen. "I'll abort mine. I'll go to the doctor right now. You and Mom deserve this chance..."

"Lorelai Leigh Gilmore, don't say that. Don't let me _ever_ hear you say that," Luke's order was not stern, no; more paternal, almost gentle. "Don't you know that your mom needs you now more than ever? Just think - the two of you can do pregnant-lady things together! Go get manicures; schedule two-for-one ultrasounds..."

"... All culminating in you becoming a father and grandfather at roughly the same time! How messed up is that?" Rory blubbered, burying her face into Luke's shirt. He stroked her hair.

"It's not messed up. It's _extraordinary_. And I never thought I'd amount to much of anything, never mind have an extraordinary life. Your mom... and you... and April: you've given me that! Do you know how much I brag about my Yale and MIT-educated daughters? Every. single. damn. day! And I won't shut up about my son... or my grandchild." He rested a hand on Rory's baby bump, and kissed her head.

"We can do this, Rory. _All_ of us. None is being left behind. Understand? I'm happy for you. I'd feel better if you had the support of the baby's father - and that said father was preferably turned into a eunuch - but it is what it is. And we will make it work. _All_ of it. I promise."

Rory smiled up at him through her tears. "I love you, Daddy."

"Love you too, princess."

And helping her up, father and daughter walked arm-in-arm back to Maple Street.


End file.
